How long is to long for chicks to hatch

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We are incubating eggs( chicken) and today is the 21 st. day. Last night two started to pip, after all day today they are both still inside the bottom part of the shells. When should they be free of the shell? We read that it can take up to 6 hours to completely hatch but this is more like 10 hours and they both have the underside of the shells still on. They both seem strong and are peeping to each other, should I be worried or just stay calm. One of them looks as if it hasn't totally absorbed all the yolk yet, is this cause for concern. I'm hanging here with all these questions coming from my kids and I haven't any answers.

-- Kelle in MT. (kvent1729@aol.com), April 18, 2001

Answers

It's been a couple years since we incubated eggs but I remember some eggs taking a couple extra days to hatch out. You can candle them and check for progress. As for the others that are hatched out, I would gently remove the egg shell.

-- Pat (mikulptrc@aol.com), April 19, 2001.

I have opened eggs (VERY CAREFULLY) when the rest of the clutch has hatched and one or two seem to be lagging or getting tired and weak, usually after many hours. Have saved a few, and lost a few. I figured they would die of suffocation in the shell or die due to being manually hatched, so decided to chance it. The yolk should be absorbed, though. Not sure what I'd do in that case. Be sure to get the hatchlings under a heat lamp right away.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), April 19, 2001.

Kelle, for the ones not hatched yet, leave them another day or two. Sometimes eggs will hatch a couple days late. After that, you need to get the eggs out. You dont want to have any exploding in your incubator(trust me). Personally, I would recommend not opening any eggs that are not hatched. Usually if the chick does not get itself out, it will not develop the strength to thrive anyway. Just guessing, I would think this is a humidity problem. You'd probably just as well gently remove the shell from the two that are out. Good luck.

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), April 19, 2001.

Hi Kelle, usually chicks once they start hatching go fairly fast. 2-3 hours at most. The weak ones can take much longer. I hatched out a bunch of chicks last summer and only had to help 2 or 3 late ones. They turned out fine and I didn't lose any by helping. I had 8 duck eggs due to hatch last weekend and only had 3 make it and 2 died while hatching. I helped out 2 of the 3 and they are all doing fine now. I wish I had helped the other 2 that died I think they would have made it. All my ducks still had a yolk sac showing, but it was absorbed into their body after about 4 hours. I also have 6 goose eggs that didn't hatch, so don't know what the problem is there. I hope all is well now.

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 19, 2001.

Hello all, Thank you for all the information. Well, the original 2 are doing fine and two more in the incubator( they seem ify though) The second chick did absorb the yolk sack and is doing fine, getting stronger every minute. I candled the others this morning and two were for sure bad, four started to hatch and then died. The funny thing is that all that died during the hatch were white with a black spot on there backs, and black wing tips. The ones who have survived and are still working on it are all black. Do you think it could be a genitic defect in the white ones? I was really carefull with watching the temperature and making sure there was water in the trays( everyday) I never saw the signs of to much humidity either. It's dissapointing and my daughter was pretty sad :o( and a few tears were shed. We just went ahead and ordered some day old chicks to replace the ones that died. I'm frustrated we had such a low success rate, I don't know that we'll try it again. I ordered Buff Ophingtons, hear they make good moms, I'm going to leave it up to them next year or just order chicks.It was a great learning experience for us all. Thanks again for all your help.

Blessings, Kelle

-- Kelle in MT. (kvent1729@aol.com), April 19, 2001.



Sorry to hear about your disappointment. It's hard losing ones that start to hatch and don't make it. The stress factor is so much better when the mother hen does the hatching. I've read that 70-80% is a good hatching rate for chickens, so don't give up. My first batch last April I hatched 33 out of 42 eggs. I didn't know much and had my best hatch rate. I think there are many factors involved in hatching out a good batch. Some that are out of your control, so don't feel bad. I see incubators selling for 250-400 bucks and have wondered why anyone would waste that much money when you can get one for 35 bucks. Now I know why. My daughters are 6 and 8 and are thrilled everytime I hatch eggs. I'm sure yours will remember this the rest of their lives.

-- Kent in WA (kent@premier1.net), April 19, 2001.

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